Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-26096

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been affected as a consequence of their mothers being prescribed sodium valproate during pregnancy.

We do not know the numbers of children affected because the information has not been collected historically.

In response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDSR), the Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to establish a medicines in pregnancy surveillance asset. This resource will support monitoring and reporting to progress improvements in the safe use of valproate and other teratogenic medicines in Scotland. Its first output is due to be published by PHS in April 2024 and will include prescribing data and trends for valproate and other anti-seizure medicines.

Question reference: S6W-26149

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to achieve its aim of ending new cases of HIV by 2030.

As outlined in the Scottish HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal, published on 1 December 2022, our aim is to achieve ‘zero people contracting HIV within Scotland by 2030’. To do so, one of the key interim targets is to achieve 100 or fewer first ever diagnoses per year by the end of 2025.

The most recently published HIV data for Scotland (to 31 December 2022), released by Public Health Scotland on 26 September 2023, indicate that, since 2017, the annual number of first ever diagnoses recorded in Scotland has more than halved, decreasing from 226 in 2017 to 108 in 2022. Of note, 55 of 108 (51%) first ever diagnoses recorded in 2022 were thought likely to have been acquired within Scotland.

In addition, the data indicate a small proportion (11%) of first ever HIV diagnoses were recently acquired (i.e. within the previous three to four months). This is the lowest number and proportion for over five years and is, in part, the result of the Scottish Government’s world-leading approach to making HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis available on the NHS in 2017.

Question reference: S6W-26152

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a national HIV testing week.

Following careful consideration by the HIV Transmission Elimination Scoping Group, and the advice of clinical and public health experts, the Scottish Government is not planning to introduce a national HIV testing week at this time. Given Scotland’s relatively low HIV prevalence, the potential benefits of a national testing week would primarily be in addressing stigma and promoting testing rather than finding and supporting individuals with undiagnosed infections. Our HIV Transmission Elimination Delivery Plan sets out our approach to addressing stigma and promoting testing on a consistent, year-round basis.

We will review the potential costs and benefits of a national testing week once priority actions to expand capacity and improve access to testing have been progressed.

Question reference: S6W-26151

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to extend blood borne virus testing to other A&E departments across Scotland.

There are no imminent plans to expand emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing to other areas. It is important that decisions about any further expansion are based on the best available evidence. The Scottish Government will use evaluation data from the current pilot projects, combined with other evidence, to determine whether further roll out would be acceptable, deliverable and cost-effective in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26150

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to monitor the blood borne virus testing pilot that is currently taking place at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's A&E department.

Question reference: S6T-01903

Asked by: Audrey Nicoll, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report on how women born in the 1950s were affected by increases to the state pension age, and given that women are more likely to live in poverty than men, what assessment it has made of the potential impact that changes to the state pension age have had on the poverty rate among women in Scotland.

Question reference: S6T-01893

Asked by: Roz McCall, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Scotland has become the "worst country in Europe" for unqualified beauticians injecting customers with cosmetic treatments.

Question reference: S6T-01899

Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to tackle child poverty.

Question reference: S6F-02979

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2024

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government plans to take following the publication of the University of Stirling study highlighting the reported risk of crumb rubber infill on artificial pitches.

Question reference: S6F-02974

Asked by: Maggie Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2024

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on what action the Scottish Government is taking to deliver the New Deal for Tenants.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

Chamber and committees

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